The present invention relates to a door videophone for visually observing an outdoor caller and talking with the caller, and, more particularly, to a door videophone capable of rotating a camera in order to observe total looks of an outdoor caller.
Generally, when a caller calls at a person""s house, it is necessary that a host of the house observes whether the caller is acquaintance or not and, then, opens a door.
Referring to FIG. 1, there is shown a conventional door videophone for observing a caller.
As shown in FIG. 1, the conventional door videophone includes a main body 10 having a monitor 12, a bell box 20 having a camera 22 for transmitting image of a caller to the monitor 12, an electronic lock 30 disposed at door and a power supply 40 for providing electric current to the main body 10, the monitor 20 and the lock 30. The main body 10 is located indoors and the bell box 20 is located outdoors.
The main body 10 also has a release switch 14 for unlocking the electronic lock 30, a hook switch 16 for operating the monitor 12 and a handset 18 for talking with the caller. The hook switch 16 is turn on when the handset 18 is lifted.
The bell box 20 also has a bell switch 24 for ringing a bell.
The operation of the conventional door videophone structured as above-mentioned will be explained.
When the caller turns on the bell switch 24 to ring the bell, a host lifts the handset 18 to turn on the hook switch 16. In this case, the image of the caller photographed by the camera 22 is displayed on the monitor 12 so that the host can observe the caller and, then, the host turns on the release switch 14 to unlock the electronic lock 30.
However, in the conventional door videophone, since the photographing direction of the camera cannot be adjusted, photographing area of the camera is extremely limited.
Therefore, when the caller gets out of the photographing area, the camera cannot photograph the total looks of the caller and, consequently, the host cannot correctly observe looks of the caller through the monitor.
It is, therefore, an object of the present invention to provide a door videophone capable of rotating a camera to enlarge a photographing area of the camera.
In accordance with an aspect of the present invention, there is provided a door videophone capable of rotating a camera, comprising: a main body having a monitor for displaying an image of a caller, and being located indoors; a bell box having the camera for photographing looks of the caller and transmitting the image of the caller to the monitor, and being located outdoors; an actuating means for rotating the camera, and being disposed in the bell box; and a control means for generating an operation control signal associated with the actuating means, and being disposed at the main body.
In accordance with another aspect of the present, there is provided an actuator for rotating a camera upward, downward, left and right, comprising: a base plate for supporting the camera; at least one first driving means for generating a rotation force to rotate the base plate upward and downward; at least one first transmitting means for transmitting the rotation force generated by the first driving means to the base plate; at least one second driving means for generating a rotation force to rotate the base plate left and right; at least one second transmitting means for transmitting the rotation force generated by the second driving means to the base plate; and a control means for generating an operation control signal associated with the first and second driving means.